Just like humans, apes suffer self-doubt too
April 19th, 2010 - 2:25 pm ICT by ANILondon, April 19 (ANI): Just like humans, apes are sufficiently self-aware to doubt their own knowledge, says a new study.
As part of the research, Josep Call of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, put food in one of two opaque plastic pipes and had watching bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans pick the one with the food.
Call found that if they were made to wait, the apes sometimes forgot where the food was, but by and large they did well on the task, reports New Scientist.
To find out if the apes doubted their own decisions, Call gave them the option to peek into the end of the pipes before they chose one.
He found that the apes were more likely to check the pipes if they had to wait before picking one.
Call says this suggests that the apes had begun to doubt their memory.
The study has been published in the journal Animal Cognition. (ANI)
- Great apes too make sophisticated decisions - Dec 30, 2011
- Bonobo chimps like humans may be hardwired to shake their heads to say 'no' - May 06, 2010
- Some gorillas may eat monkeys - Mar 06, 2010
- Toddlers and chimps follow their peers - Apr 13, 2012
- 'Promiscuous' chimps produce more sperm - Feb 17, 2011
- Sharing comes naturally to 'Peter Pan' apes - Feb 02, 2010
- Chimps likely to warn groups unaware of dangers - Dec 30, 2011
- Human malarial parasite came from gorillas, not chimps - Sep 23, 2010
- Like humans, apes too play it safe when odds are uncertain - Nov 30, 2010
- Humans related to orangutans, not chimps or gorillas - Jun 18, 2009
- Sharing comes naturally to apes - Feb 02, 2010
- Like humans, chimps too close a deal - Aug 21, 2009
- Developmental delays may explain differences in behavior of ape species - Jan 29, 2010
- Kids don't mind sharing after working together - Feb 13, 2011
- Eating monkeys, apes could cause 'next HIV' - May 26, 2012
Tags: animal cognition, chimpanzees, decisions, gorillas, leipzig germany, london, max planck, max planck institute, max planck institute for evolutionary anthropology, memory, new scientist, orangutans, peek, plastic pipes, self doubt